Sleep??

[rthmjohn]

That is quite impressive if it is indeed true.

[Peels]

Hi Tony (Bgoatgruff),

 

I tried to connect to your live webcam, but failed.

 

How are you doing for your sleep deprivation world record attempt? Can you describe some details about your experiment?

 

It seems to me that you have recently contacted with Robert McDonald. Do you have more details about that experiment?

 

Thanks.

[Bgoatgruff]

Hi, the warm up run highlighted a number of issues re online sleep deprivation. There were various technical hitches on day one that meant I was not online much until the evening, then during web cam switches between rooms my computer crashed a few times so there were periods of down time. The most challenging thing was being in an office staring at text in a chat room on a screen. This was much more difficult than staying awake, however completed 100 hrs more or less online then had a break from the screen and stayed up another17 hrs or so. Having done over 100 experiments ranging from 2-8 days the sleep deprivation was not a problem. Typically tiredness is replaced by a feel good factor from a couple of days on.

 

The purpose of the 100 hrs was to try and attract some preliminary media interest in order to get some sponsorship in turn to rent a house for a couple of weeks for the long run. There is some press and TV interest but nothing concrete so will just have to wait and see. The whole thing is simply a stunt to publicise my research, a sleep record is it seems of more interest than proposing the discovery of a hitherto unknown neurological condition.

 

I did contact Robert McDonald (via his web site) during my research into Guinness verified or otherwise accepted records. I was suspicious of the presumption that maintaining a very simple movement in a relaxed position automatically meant full consciousness. His reply to my question confirmed that while his 'rocking' record stands, he was not fully awake at all times. I wish to make it clear that Im not suggesting he made any attempt to mislead anyone re the his frequent mention in connection with longest staying awake, in fact his reply suggests otherwise. As Guinness do not or no longer recognise a sleep deprivation category its all a bit academic, I can simply choose the Gardner record as my objective. Gardner unlike McDonald was more closely monitored re sleep and his sleep record was the objective not an incidental claim.

 

 

My basic objective is to demonstrate a relatively functional state during prolonged periods without sleep, the only variable being a long term primate like diet. I would propose that the biochemistry of such a diet can facilitate access to latent function under certain circumstances. This I would hope will generate some interest in the research behind the record attempt.

 

However without some sponsorship it may not happen.

 

I have yet to get a response from a number of sleep researchers who I recently contacted. I presumed a subject aiming to go at least 11 days would be of interest and provide me with some objective verification, so far nothing.

 

 

Regards

 

 

 

Tony

[jtzako]

Ive suffered for years without being able to get "good" sleep. Basically it can take 30min to 2hrs to fall asleep and I wake up frequently. (and sometimes take a while to fall back asleep again)

 

I notice some side effects of this, such as never feeling fully rested and sometimes short term memory issues (like not remembering what I ate for lunch the previous day). However, I am still able to do my daily work (pc/network tech support) etc without trouble so I must be getting just enough sleep.

 

Meds dont help at all. I can take a heavy dose of sedative and still take considerable time to get sleep and will still wake up at least a couple times in the night. I stopped using meds as they actually made me feel worse the next day than if I just didnt use them at all.

 

Since this started happening (years ago) I noticed that I can no longer function if I've been awake over a certain period of time. (typically 18hrs awake is about the point where I dont feel well at all) When I used to be able to function fine even if I stayed awake on purpose for more than 1 day.

 

One odd thing that I dont know if its normal; I often am conscious of my dreams as if I am not fully asleep but I am dreaming. I often wake up when this is happening and fully remember what I was dreaming about.